Mike Thompson: The fiscal cliff

November 15, 2012

Detroit Free Press

Let's be adults when it comes to America's fiscal crisis. We're going to need a combination of spending cuts and tax increases to get out of the financial hole we've dug for ourselves. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are going to walk away completely happy from any agreement to help curb the flow of red ink.

We can start by slashing defense spending (we don't have enemies that require us to spend $80 billion developing a new fighter jet that doesn’t even work). And according to some estimates, the government spends billions more on corporate welfare than it spends on social welfare programs.

The notion that we should balance the budget on the backs of the poor while the wealthiest Americans continue to enjoy giant tax cuts is absurd.